Game quality

What each result was worth beyond the score. Every play is graded by EPA (expected points added), then adjusted for who it came against: a defence's rating is what it allowed to everyone else that season, so a big day against a bad defence counts for less. Season views include playoff games.

Jacoby Brissett — 2021

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.106
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.095
Dropbacks
244
Turnover EPA
-29.5
WPA
+0.10
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
2BUF 44 -0.261 -0.323 +0.062 -11.5 1 / 0 -4.5 4 -6.8 -0.12 -9.0
3LV 51 -0.119 -0.053 -0.065 -6.0 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.4 +0.21 -3.7
4IND 33 -0.008 -0.017 +0.009 -0.3 0 / 1 -6.0 3 -8.7 -0.09 +1.1
5TB 42 +0.038 -0.026 +0.064 +1.6 1 / 1 -7.6 3 -5.4 +0.13 +1.1
6JAX 1 +2.097 +2.228 -0.131 +2.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.05 +52.6
9HOU 47 -0.166 -0.068 -0.098 -7.8 2 / 1 -11.4 4 -9.8 -0.08 +1.1
10BAL 25 -0.092 -0.080 -0.012 -2.3 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.8 +0.00 -5.8
16NO 1 -1.652 -1.755 +0.103 -1.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.00
Opponent adjustment. A unit's rating for a game is its average over its other games that season, blended with 16 games' worth of prior (league average plus half of last season's gap from it; 24 games for pass defence, which is noisier). Early in a season that leans on last year; by midseason it is mostly this year. Chosen by how well it predicts a held-out game: it cut that error by about a quarter against no shrinkage, and adjusted numbers agree between odd and even weeks more than raw ones do (team EPA margin r 0.52 → 0.55, defence 0.32 → 0.36, QB EPA/dropback 0.47 → 0.49, 2016–2025).
Win expectancy is a logistic fit of wins on EPA margin over 6,036 completed games (it names the winner 86.5% of the time). These describe what happened; one game is not a forecast. Play-by-play credits the quarterback with every sack and dropback, so a bad line shows up in his numbers. Seasons 2016–2026, built 2026-09-14 01:25 UTC, from nflverse. Write-up: backtests/nfl_game_quality/FINDINGS.md.